Win Shares: 1989 NBA Draft

To not turn this into solely a blog about the Oakland A's (although I'll probably just go back to them for my next entry) I figured I'd pull out something random. So here is a look back at the 1989 NBA Draft using Win Shares.

I picked the '89 Draft because for quite the lack of talent that came out of it as there is not a future Hall of Famer in the class, it featured it's 2nd pick overall Danny Ferry pitching a fit after being selected by the Clippers and sitting out the '89-'90 season, and it was the first year that the draft was shrunk to two rounds. As you'll see they couldn't fit nearly a full round of decent NBA talent. In addition only Clifford Robinson is still active from the '89 Draft so you can realistically evaluate a draft when almost every player is no longer in the league rather than those who try to evalute only a few years after a draft. Robinson incidently enough was the best value pick of the draft as he was not selected until 36th overall.

Now for Win Shares, everyone thinks of them for baseball but at Basketball-Reference.com they came up with a version for basketball. I don't know how reliable the stat is but seems useful to compare the success of players who were drafted the same year.

1989 NBA Draft Rankings by Career Win Shares

1. Glenn Rice, Miami - 270 Win Shares (4th pick)

2. Vlade Divac, L.A. Lakers - 269 (26th)

3. Clifford Robinson, Portland - 258 (36th)

4. Tim Hardaway, Golden State - 252 (14th)

5. Shawn Kemp, Seattle - 237 (17th)

6. Mookie Blalock, New Jersey - 203 (12th)

7. Sean Elliott, San Antonio - 174 (3rd)

8. Nick Anderson, Orlando - 161 (11th)

9. B.J. Armstrong, Chicago - 138 (18th)

10. Dana Barros, Seattle - 133 (16th)

11t. Danny Ferry, L.A. Clippers - 103 (2nd)

11t. Sherman Douglas, Miami - 103 (28th)

13. George McCloud, Indiana - 80 (7th)

14t. J.R. Reid, Charlotte - 70 (5th)

14t. Pooh Richardson, Minnesota - 70 (10th)

14t. Blue Edwards, Utah - 70 (21st)

17. Chucky Brown, Cleveland - 58 (43rd)

18t. Pervis Ellison, Sacramento - 52 (1st)

18t. Doug West, Minnesota - 52 (38th)

20. Tom Hammonds, Denver - 45 (9th)

21. Stacey King, Chicago - 40 (6th)

22. Dino Radja, Boston - 38 (40th)

23. Haywoode Workman, Atlanta - 31 (49th)

24. Todd Lichti, Denver - 17 (15th)

25. Michael Ansley, Orlando - 16 (37th)

26. Randy White, Dallas - 14 (8th)

27. Greg Grant, Phoenix - 10 (52nd)

28. Kenny Battle, Detroit - 9 (27th)

29. Jeff Martin, L.A. Clippers - 8 (31st)

30. Byron Irvin, Portland - 7 (22nd)

31. John Morton, Cleveland - 6 (25th)

32. Michael Smith, Boston - 5 (13th)

33. Brian Quinnett, New York - 4 (50th)

34t. Pat Durham, Dallas - 3 (35th)

34t. Kenny Payne, Philadelphia - 3 (19th)

36t. Jeff Sanders, Chicago - 2 (20th)

36t. Anthony Cook, Phoenix - 2 (24th)

36t. Frank Kornet, Milwaukee - 2 (30th)

39t. Ed Horton, Washington - 1 (39th)

39t. Doug Roth, Washigton - 1 (41st)

39t. Scott Haffner, Miami - 1 (45th)

The Zero Club

Roy Marble, Atlanta (23rd)

Dyron Nix, Charlotte (29th)

Stlaney Brundy, New Jersey (32nd)

Jay Edwards, L.A. Clippers (33rd)

Gary Leonard, Minnesota (34th)

Ricky Blanton, Phoenix (46th)

Mike Morrison, Phoenix (51st)

Never Played

Michael Cutright, Denver (42nd)

Reggie Cross, Philadelphia (44th)

Reggie Turner, Denver (47th)

Junie Lewis, Utah (48th)

Jeff Hodge, Dallas (53rd)

Toney Mack, Philadelphia (54th)

Here's one more list, as we know just because a player had a good career didn't necessarily make him a good draft pick for the team that drafted him. So here's the Top 10 in career Win Shares for the team they were drafted by.

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I'd have to compare other NBA draft classes of this era, but that doesn't seem like a bad draft to me. They might not be Hall of Famers, but many went on to have solid careers. I was always a Mookie fan, especially when he went to the Hawks.